How Matt first encountered Christopher Hitchens  ... Matt’s new book, How Hitchens Can Save the Left: Rediscovering Fearless Liberalism in an Age of Counter-Enlightenment  ... Why Matt thinks Cornel West’s Vietnam-Afghanistan analogy is flawed  ... What’s worth preserving in the left-liberal tradition?  ... Matt: Identity politics is a “toxin”  ... Was affirmative action ever necessary?  ... Matt: I wish the left would rediscover Hitchens’s universalism  ... Hitchens’s “fearless liberalism” ...

Can Hitchens Save the Left? (Glenn Loury & Matt Johnson)

Race, inequality, and economics in the US and throughout the world from Glenn Loury, Professor of Economics at Brown University and Paulson Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute 

glennloury.substack.com

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ORDER Glenn's memoir, LATE ADMISSIONS: CONFESSIONS OF A BLACK CONSERVATIVE. Available here or wherever you get your books: https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393881349 0:00 The end of a tumultuous semester  4:39 The willful misreadings of John’s criticisms of the student protests  9:26 There are wars all over the world. Why so much fervor around Israel-Palestine?  16:40 Ground News ad  18:41 Has Israel gone too far in Gaza? 22:32 Should students be forced to listen to protests that might offend them?  35:11 Glenn’s book is out this week!  41:11 An update on Glenn’s recovery and hospital cuisine Recorded May 11, 2024 Links and Readings John’s NYT piece, “I’m a Columbia Professor. The Protests on My Campus Are Not Justice” John’s NYT piece, “The Columbia Protests Made the Same Mistake the Civil Rights Movement Did” John’s NYT piece, “Why Was This Treasure of Musical Theater All but Lost to the Ages?” Coleman Hughes and Robert Wright debate Israel-Palestine Pamela Paul’s NYT piece on Glenn, “He Knows It’s Important to Admit Mistakes. He’s Made Many.” WSJ’s review of Late Admissions Tunku Varadarajan’s 2020 WSJ profile of Glenn WaPo’s review of Late Admissions 

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John McWhorter – Campus Protests at Semester's End

Click the timestamp to go to the indicated clip in this YouTube video, click the title to go to the video from which the clip was pulled 0:00: Intro from Glenn 2:15: Cops and Race - May 29, 2020 10:09: The Viruses - June 9, 2020 16:39: A Uniquely Potentially Calamitous Situation - June 3, 2020 21:14: The Slippery Slope to Hell - April 23, 2021 27:10: What Made George Floyd? - June 23, 2022 34:21: The Uncomfortable Truth Behind Economic Inequality - April 18, 2022 41:38: The Truth about George Floyd's Death - December 4, 2023 55:51: Filmmakers Reveal the Truth about George Floyd - December 18, 2023 1:10:29: What the Controversial George Floyd Doc Didn't Show Us - February 16, 2024 1:24:13: Minneapolis after George Floyd - March 1, 2024 1:27:34: Prosecuting Derek Chauvin - April 5, 2024  

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John McWhorter – Four Years of George Floyd

PREORDER Glenn's memoir, LATE ADMISSIONS: CONFESSIONS OF A BLACK CONSERVATIVE. Available here or wherever you get your books: https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393881349 0:00 A message from Glenn 3:56 Tyler’s research on human extinction and the end of the world 12:11 Tyler’s two forthcoming books 13:38 How elite schools incentivize “compulsory racial performance” 18:40 The “mission creep” of identity politics 24:23 Tyler Austin Harper University’s admissions policy 28:44 Does diversity contribute to quality of education? 35:18 The trouble with being “the black person” in class 37:38 Diversity at Bates College, where Tyler teaches 41:38 Night fishing with Tyler, insect collecting with John 45:46 Tyler’s prolific social media presence 48:38 Tyler’s five-year plan 52:51 The turn away from obscurantism in the humanities Recorded April 28, 2024 Links and Readings Glenn and John’s first conversation with Tyler Glenn and John talk with Tyler and Daniel Bessner Mary Shelley’s novel, The Last Man Tyler’s NYT piece, “I Teach at an Elite College. Here’s a Look Inside the Racial Gaming of Admissions” Christopher Lasch’s book, The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations Richard Hanania’s book, The Origins of Woke: Civil Rights Law, Corporate America, and the Triumph of Identity Politics Glenn’s conversation with Peter Arcidiacono Tyler’s X (formerly Twitter) account Tyler’s Atlantic piece, “Polyamory, the Ruling Class’s Latest Fad” Jacques Derrida’s essay, “No Apocalypse, Not Now” 

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit glennloury.substack.com/subscribe

John McWhorter & Tyler Austin Harper – Compulsory Racial Performance

PREORDER Glenn's memoir, LATE ADMISSIONS: CONFESSIONS OF A BLACK CONSERVATIVE. Available here or wherever you get your books: https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393881349 0:00 New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s controversial decision to post the National Guard in the subway 4:25 Charles defends pretrial detentions … 12:45 … but he sees the problem with long pretrial detentions 19:05 The ongoing—and occasionally halting—recovery from 2020 23:21 Are any major cities doing law enforcement and criminal justice right? 29:52 Charles: I’ve seen no evidence that police unions abet misconduct 34:38 Charles’s unsexy solutions for decreasing police misconduct 38:00 Our present drift toward social toleration of drug use 43:40 The perils of legalized sports gambling 49:57 Charles: Long-term, medically assisted treatment is the best way to get addiction rates down 53:06 Are we under-counting hate crimes? Recorded March 22, 2024 Links and Readings Charles’s Substack, The Causal Fallacy Charles’s City Journal piece, “Yes, New York’s Bail Reform Has Increased Crime” Charles and co-author Elias Neibart’s Manhattan Institute report, “Is Less Always More? The Unintended Consequences of New York State’s Parole Reform” Glenn’s conversation with Matthew Martens Matthew Martens’s book, Reforming Criminal Justice: A Christian Proposal Charles and co-author Reihan Salam’s Atlantic piece, “We’re Underfunding the Police” Tom Wolfe’s book, The Bonfire of the Vanities Charles’s Substack post, “The Police Unions Puzzle” Glenn’s conversation with Philip K. Howard Philip K. Howard’s book, Not Accountable: Rethinking the Constitutionality of Public Employee Unions Charles’s City Journal piece, “Combat the Drug Crisis”  

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit glennloury.substack.com/subscribe

Charles Fain Lehman – Urban Crime, Police Misconduct and the Drug Crisis

PREORDER Glenn's memoir, LATE ADMISSIONS: CONFESSIONS OF A BLACK CONSERVATIVE. Available here or wherever you get your books: https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393881349 0:00 A message from Glenn 4:00 Why Clifton is planning a one-man show about Thomas Sowell 9:42 The challenge of portraying Sowell onstage 13:45 How Clifton is getting the show off the ground 19:01 The lure of acting 22:43 2020’s affect on the racial dynamics of the theater 30:40 Clifton: Top-down DEI casting edicts are “central planning for art” 40:25 The racial attitude that’s “destroying black artists,” according to Viola Davis 47:27 Why Clifton changed his position about COVID pandemic measures 1:04:29 The left’s valuation of vulnerability 1:14:21 Why Clifton’s career fell apart after 2020 1:24:56 If progressives like the COVID vaccines, why don’t they give Trump any credit? 1:29:05 The problem of the black independent thinker Recorded April 13, 2024 Links & Reading Clifton’s Substack, State of the Arts Thomas Sowell’s 1983 appearance on William F. Buckley’s Firing Line Thomas Sowell’s memoir, A Personal Odyssey Cheryl West’s play, Before It Hits Home Suzan-Lori Parks’s 365 Plays/365 Days Donald Bogle’s book, Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films Donald Bogle’s book, Primetime Blues: African Americans on Network Television The Great Barrington Declaration Andrew Lobaczewski’s book, Political Ponerology: The Science of Evil, Psychopathy, and the Origins of Totalitarianism 

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit glennloury.substack.com/subscribe

Can Hitchens Save the Left? (Glenn Loury & Matt Johnson)

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